Emmett Lions Club News

EMMETT LIONS HELPING

While doing Sight & Hearing screening at Shadow Butte Elementary School, the Emmett Lions Club and the school nurse Pam Hodges, who is an Emmett Lion, discovered that Kristopher McCrackin desperately needed hearing aids. With the help of the Emmett Lions ,the Emmett Lions submitted Kristopher's application to the Foundation. The wheels were now in motion. Here is the story of how Kristopher McCrackin received his hearing aids. Dr. Gayle Chaney, ISDB's Audiologist, met Bill Austin, the head of the Starkey Hearing Aid Company at an audiology conference in March 2004. She voiced her concerns for students in the State of Idaho who were unable to get hearing aids. Mr. Austin told her to contact him after the conference, which she did, and the rest is history. In order for Idaho students to be eligible for Starkey Day, Dr. Chaney had to gain financial support with a $7,000.00 grant from the Idaho Lions Sight and Hearing Foundation. Students throughout Idaho were picked for this trip based on specific criteria given to Dr. Chaney by the Starkey Foundation. Five lucky students and their parents received early Christmas presents thanks to the generosity of Bill Austin and the Starkey Foundation. Danny Roy, Hope Robbins, Skyler Silcock, Melody Mower, and Kristopher McCrackin all received new hearing aids after they and their parents were flown to the Starkey Labs in Minneapolis, Minn. On December 14. The three-day excursion to Minneapolis for the students, parents and Dr. Chaney was all paid for by Bill Austin and the Starkey Foundation. Jan Pauley's crew from ABC auditioned some of the students for a spot on the Jane Pauley Show, which aired January 21, 2005. Skyler Silcock was interviewed by the film crew. The Idaho group met Bill Bernstein, members of the Deaf Olympic Soccer team, and Hugh O'Brien, who played Wyatt Earp. Each student was fitted personally with their aids by Bill Austin. Hugh O'Brien, who had arrived to be fitted with hearing aids did magic tricks and posed for pictures.